People are not inherently “evil.” Every human being is a complex mixture of capacities for empathy, cooperation, cruelty, and self-interest. Genetic predispositions, upbringing, and — most powerfully — the prevailing social, economic, and cultural systems powerfully nudge individuals toward one set of behaviours over another. Labelling entire groups or classes of people as “evil” essentializes them, ignores context, and opens the door to dehumanization and violence. Consider historical oppressive structures: Under slavery: Enslaved people were the oppressed, yet not every enslaved person was virtuous or incapable of cruelty. Slave-owners were the oppressors, yet not every slave-owner was sadistic or devoid of redeeming qualities. The institution itself generated and rewarded brutality far beyond what most individuals would exhibit in a different system. Under caste, feudalism, monarchy, patriarchy, or other hierarchical orders: The same pattern holds. Oppressors benefit from, and...
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Socialism faltered under tyranny, capitalism buckles under greed. Rights Are Won Through Struggle, Not Granted: A Call to Reclaim Our Future “It is a truism, hardly even needing mention among those who study history seriously, that rights are not granted; they are won.” ~ Noam Chomsky This truth burns at the core of human progress: our freedoms—civil liberties, democratic rights, social protections—are not gifts from benevolent rulers, whether kings, dictators, or elected officials. They are victories forged in the crucible of collective action: suffragette pickets, civil rights marches, union strikes. When ordinary people unite, they don’t just demand change—they make it. Today, as authoritarianism resurges and inequality festers, Chomsky’s words are a rallying cry. They remind us how far struggle has carried us and offer a blueprint to reclaim what’s slipping away. The Lessons of History: Socialism’s Promise and Pitfalls The 20th century’s socialist experiments reveal both the p...